The Debian Administrator’s Handbook is available

We’re pleased to announce that — after 5 months of work — the Debian Administrator’s Handbook is now available, both as a beautiful 495-page paperback and as an ebook (PDF, EPUB, MOBI formats).

The paperback’s usual price is €44.90, but we decided to make a special deal for the launch. You can get it with a 10% discount until May 18th. Hurry up and get it from Lulu.com.

The ebook is available for immediate download on the book’s website. There’s the PDF file corresponding to the printed book but also an EPUB version suitable for smartphones and ebook readers. You can also find a Mobipocket version for Kindle and other ebook readers that do not support EPUB (the open standard).

Since the book is released under a set of free licenses (GPL-2+ / CC-BY-SA 3.0), it’s already available in Debian Unstable, just apt-get install debian-handbook. There’s also a git repository (git clone git://anonscm.debian.org/debian-handbook/debian-handbook.git) if you want to contribute.

We hope that you will enjoy the book and we’re eagerly awaiting your feedback (but don’t expect quick replies, I’m going to take a much needed one-week vacation).

Free software developers… You are really awesome guys. The world is really a better place with all your efforts.
For months I have been searching for such a book but in vain (Actually I’ve found it, but it was in french). and now, here is it’s translation in English. The fruit of the effort of a couple of genuine free software developers. Given for free, for the benefit of all those who need it. Thank you so much. it’s really appreciated.

I have made a .djvu file version available at http://tonybaldwin.me/books/debian-handbook.djvu
An interesting note, the pdf file is some 26mb, the djvu is only 9mb, and if you view it in djview4, you can browse the table of contents from the sidebar, search the text, and view thumbs of the pages. (screenshot http://tonybaldwin.me/pix/screenshots/051112035338.jpg ). I always prefer djvu to pdf, and do not understand why it is not more widely adopted, especially since it is a 100% Free (faif) format, unlike pdf, which is an open standard, but a patented, proprietary format.
Yes, I know. I’m being pedantic. I also say “Debian GNU/Linux”. 😛

Also, If you like to use gopher, read the book at gopher://tonybaldwin.me/1/library/debhandbook.txt The txt file could use some clean up in the table of contents, will do later, but remainder of book is quite readable. Looks best when viewed with an actual gopher client, as opposed to FF with overbite, elinks, or lynx, etc.

Thank you,Raphaël and Roland for allowing me to be part of this project. I t was fun and educational.

Thank you very much Raphael and Roland for the book, for the initiative to make it available under a free software licence, and thank you to the ommunity at large for supporting the project.
About the translation : why not using translatewiki.net as a service to help with the translation. They have already a lot of tools that may help ?

I have not looked the features of translatewiki.net but in the Debian community, people are used to using PO files to translate everything from applications to debconf screens and including most documentation… so it seems logical to go with PO files.

Ah ok, truly sorry to hear that. I would donate for your awesome work and know others that would do the same thing right now. Setting up is trivial with instawallet and would enable people without bank accounts or credit cards to give something in return. Hope you consider it in the future. Cheers

Alex, accepting Flattr donations for this specific project would require administrative work (think “bookkeeping”) that would cost more than the few euros that we would get through it. However Flattr is ok to support individuals directly… that’s why I use Flattr on my own blog. Roland is not using Flattr though.

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Accessible to all, this book teaches the essentials to anyone who wants to become an effective and independent Debian GNU/Linux administrator. It covers all the topics that a competent Linux administrator should master, from the installation and the up…